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Dear Jeffery,
After we were last in touch, I was able to have a friend
from Canada read [and interpret] the English [Arnie
Gunderson] interview transcript for me, and I now have a
general understanding of its contents, although I
haven't yet asked him formally to translate it. I don't
think that most Japanese are familiar with the facts in
this interview. The one good thing we can say is that
the Japanese have become totally accustomed to "putting
up with things." Lacking a sense of personal
responsibility [regarding Fukushima], they really don’t
have their own opinions about it, which is to say that
the Fukushima news doesn’t impinge on their lives very
much. For the same reason, there are myriads of old
people who simply find it expedient not to pay attention
to current events.
In this connection, I would like to get some concrete
advice from a specialist outside of Japan concerning how
we Japanese should deal with Fukushima at this time. We
need to know how Americans in our position would go
about their lives and deal with the daily needs of their
children. How would they prepare their food? It can't be
that we are simply going to stop eating or just 'monitor
the radiation' . . . What would an American do about our
schools--the dirt in the playground? Also, would they
let their children swim in outdoor pools? What would
they suggest we do with the pools in [my town of]
Tsukuba this summer? These are big issues for us.
Some experts have opposed the government's policy of
allowing [children to get] 20 millisieverts per year,
seeing it as an absolute danger. So now it's been
recommended that the limit be maintained as far as
possible at no more than 1 millisievert. But [at the
same time] we’ve received letters from our grandchild's
nursery school saying that 20 millisieverts is okay.
I’ve heard that the nursery school is replacing the sand
in the play areas once a week and covering the areas
when they are not in use. But it isn't just in sandboxes
that children are playing! There is dirt all around that
area, and even the puddles in the yard are a potential
danger.
Jeffery, if you were to create a website dealing with this
emergency, the various commentaries by scholars [on your
site] will be viewable even in Japan on Youtube and the
like. What would be most helpful to everyone would be to
see this and get some concrete information concerning
how Americans would deal with the situation.
Japan’s response is definitely way off the mark. But the
more time passes, the more people lose their focus on
things. We're a nation building scores of nuclear
reactors on top of the atomic disasters of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. I seriously want to do something about this.
Masako
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